They are tiny compared to the earth. I can hardly imagine they even wipe out lives within 1000km radiused area, which still is a tiny compared to the earths surface size. Asteroids are, just giant rocks right? not atomic bombs, wich gives an increasing explosion due to it’s chain reaction. So why?
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I throw a bullet at 30 mph, directly at your head. You say “Ow!” and we cease being friends. Now, still enraged, you get into a bus and run me down at the same speed of 30 mph. If I am not already dead, my body is broken and I spend my time in traction contemplating my revenge.
Discharged from the hospital, still seeking satisfsction for your savagery, I take another bullet, load it into my Remington 700 .308, aim it at your head and shoot. With a muzzle speed of just over 2,000 feet per second (1,400 mph), when the bullet reaches you, your head exolodes. I win.
Scale this up to Earth Size, and understand that asteroids can travel up to 18 kilometers per second, or 40,000 miles per hour! A rock the size of a small mountain going 40,000 mph ain’t just makin’ a pretty little mushroom cloud. It will vapourize hundreds, if not thousands of cubic kilometers of rock, lifting it into the sky, and will generate shockwaves that travel around the Earth for weeks causing catastrophic damage.
In this case, the 1 km diameter asteroid wins.
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